


Fear Death By Water

by orphan_account



Series: The Censorship of Skin [2]
Category: Criminal Minds
Genre: Gen, Trans Character, ftm!Reid
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2010-11-01
Updated: 2010-11-01
Packaged: 2017-10-13 00:45:02
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 525
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/130926
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/orphan_account/pseuds/orphan_account
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>The team prepares to leave for vacation. Reid doesn't like beaches, and he's not feeling so enthusiastic about visiting his mother, either. Set at the beginning of 01x22, The Fisher King (1). (ftm!Reid, which idea refuses to leave my head.)</p>
            </blockquote>





	Fear Death By Water

**Author's Note:**

  * For [lesablefox](https://archiveofourown.org/gifts?recipient=lesablefox).



> Part two of a mini-series of AU episode tags. Series title from "Born A Girl", Manic Street Preachers. Fic title from TS Eliot's The Wasteland.

“Oh, there he is! Pretty...boy.”

There’s a strange emphasis on the second word.

Spencer tells himself that Morgan doesn’t know, can’t know. That Morgan is thinking of how young he looks.

It’s almost convincing.

“Last chance. I can get my man to swing you a hotel room for practically nothing.” For the first time in recent memory, they all have vacation time at once. Two full weeks, and the fact that none of them are staying means they’re highly unlikely to get called back.

Morgan sits on Elle’s desk and leans toward him. “Even you might get a little lovin’ out there.”

Right, just what he wants - Jamaica. _Hot sunny days, cool breezes at night, tropical drinks with the little umbrellas, and nothing but young, beautiful adults looking to make vacation memories_ , isn’t that what Morgan had said? And Elle had turned to him and said _Male AND female, right?_

“Thanks anyway,” he says, and busies himself putting things in his messenger bag. Even if he weren’t going home to visit his mother for the next two weeks, half-naked on a beach with coworkers is not his idea of a fun time. He’s more of a mountain person, anyway - calm, peaceful, no crowds of people or loud music or sand that doesn’t come out from between your toes for a week.

“Aw, come on, Reid, live a little, huh?”

“I...” he swallows, thinking of the last time he heard those words. _Really, Spence, you should live a little!_ From a woman he was supposed to be protecting, another person he hadn’t been brave enough (foolish enough?) to tell the truth. “I have to go,” Spencer says abruptly. “I’m going home. Have a good one, guys.”

“Bye,” Elle calls after him as he’s walking away.

He hears Morgan as he rounds the corner. “He look okay to you?”

He’s out of visual range, but he can almost hear Elle’s shrug. “He looks about the way I would, if I was going to spend two weeks with my family.” Their conversation is too faded to make out after that, but it stays with him as he makes his way to his car.

His family. His schizophrenic mother, locked up at Bennington since the day he’d turned 18, and the father that left when he was still a child. They’d argued so much before his father left, and so much of it was about him. _Diana, do you really think that haircut is appropriate for a little girl? You’re encouraging her!_

Spencer unlocks the car doors and tosses his messenger bag into the back. It’s possible that he closes the door a little harder than is strictly necessary.  
 _  
I think it’s perfectly appropriate for Spencer_ , his mother had said. The arguments about his name had gone much the same way. _I know it’s an unusual name for a girl_ , his mother would say, _but it’s not without precedent, and it fits well._

He rubs his hands over his face and shakes his head in an attempt to clear his thoughts. He has a long drive ahead of him, and he’d like to get there in one piece.


End file.
